Celtics Fans Heart KG

unreal game last night, from getting up 20, to letting it slip away, to getting it back. it included so many great moments to. Perkins and pollard playing thier butts off against yao, pierce realising, as he has done many times this season, that some nights he dosen;t have to be the man on offense (sweet 2 assists on the 2 go ahead jumpers from kg)…

and of course garnett. from the little things, like helping ray allen up during a fast break and STILL beating yao down the floor to get into the offense, and on replays you can read him saying something to the effect of “get up ray, we have to go!” as rondo broke downcourt with the ball.

and the last 2 minutes might be my favriote celtics moment so far and thats sayign alot, first KG coming in and pointing at the banners to get the crowd back into it, then him hitting that jumper over ming and pointing to the celtics logo on his jersey, and carrying pierce off the court on his back….that picture is going to be my screensaver for a long while.

awesome night,

This is weird, despite blowing the huge lead, did anyone really think they weren’t going to come back???

Last year I woulda shut it off in disgust, this time around I was just thinking, give ’em time….

what a difference a year makes!

good comments crownsy.some athletes are posers, e.g. the dance routines after tds in the nfl. i even think papelbom is a poser on the mound. what kg does comes out of his heart, the flame that burns within just flares out with some amazing images that will last way beyond the moment that they occur.last night, we had several kg moments and i hope we all will cherish them.27-3, folks. pinch me, it can’t be true.last year’s 0-18 fiasco was constructed and enduRed and now we have a taste of heaven on earth.

Garnett just took the game over in the last 5 minutes. Very impressive. Of course, has it not been for Rivers’ wacko rotations in quarters 2 and 3, Garnett’s heroics would not have been necessary.

One of my favorite games this season.

Houston was a worthy opponent. Wells & Scola worked well with Yao. They actually looked better with McGrady on the bench. Hmmmm… Somehow the C’s made Alston look clutch in the 2nd half, which is a feat in itself.

But KG?! Loved seeing him take over down the stretch. Incredible. I just hope his head doesn’t explode from all the excitement & emotion. I don’t remember him ever looking this hyped in Minny, with the exception of the deep run in ’05 (?).

How about Ray, PP & Rondo with crucial plays, boards & assists in the 4th? Pollard with 10pts & 5 boards! Perk did good work on Yao.

I especially loved that the C’s battled back after about 5 bad calls against them. That would have killed them in recent seasons… Great game.

Ray Ray came up with two big offensive boards at the end of the game. Great stuff.

No need to worry about giving up leads. That’ll happen, this is the NBA after all. How many times did we battle back in the last 2 years, only to collapse in the end. There really isn’t that big a drop off in talent between the C’s and other teams. Just clutch players that know how to win.

Yao, Battier, Wells, even Alston would be major contributors on this team. (C’s) So am i worried that a T-Mac less Rockets team pushed us to the brink? Not at all.

As CelticRebel pointed out, Houston has some nice players. Danny get on the phone with the Houston GM; obviously, Yao’s untouchable, but Battier, Wells, and Alston would be nice pickups and they aren’t considered “untouchable.”

The Celts need no changes to the roster. I know it is part of blogging junkies to want to talk trades but this 27-3 record is a function of the chemistry. Danny has shown himself too smart to mess with that. Other great teams of talent have not gone the distance because they didn’t have chemistry. The Posey and House pickups were huge. Just watch the bench. Pollard certainly played his best game.

The game was close because our guys looked tired on D especially Perk and Tony Allen. Man, when Tony forgets to strap on his head it isn’t pretty. Against the Lakers he was awesome, against Rockets awful.

Garnett leaves me speechless.

I wish Doc wouldn’t call KG our best player, even if it might be true.

Brickowski said:
  Garnett just took the game over in the last 5 minutes. Very impressive. Of course, has it not been for Rivers’ wacko rotations in quarters 2 and 3, Garnett’s heroics would not have been necessary.

Brick, you should have stopped after your first sentence. I also questioned the rotations, but: 1. The guys that came in didn’t execute; 2. The C’s were a tired bunch and you had to save the best for last; 3. We won the game because the best were able to have enough to get it done at the end. And a 20 point win would have been boring, we wouldn’t have seen how great Garnett was and PP wouldn’t have gotten a piggy-back ride to the bench (I don’t even think Garnett knew PP was doing this).

Brick, forgot to say that Doc knew the guys were flat from the morning shoot around and from the locker room before the game. The rotations you complain about were smart coaching based on the situation—emotional, tiring road trip, first game back, etc. It’s not Doc’s fault the players didn’t respond (except for House).

Life is good,

Gerald Green slam dunk contest -—- Heartbreaking talent wasted
Sebastian Telfair gun collection -— Trainwreck going nowhere
Theo Ratliff’s bad back -— Waiting for retirement check
Ryan Gomes coming out party -— Classy guy on a wrong team
Al Jefferson potential -— Why Why Why did I sign that extention to stay in Minnesota
1st round pick in 2007 -— Who Cares !!!!!!

Kevin Garnett in a Celtic Uniform -— Championship Banner 17 Priceless !!!!

Now can we all just get along ;)

Thanks Master Po ;)

my screensaver, or should i say, background is unfortuantly just the photo from boston.com cropped to fit my screen.

anyone with photo shop talent intrested in making a real background out of that photo? you would be the most awesome person ever :D

and yea, doc does tic me off with that best player rotuine on KG. it’s liek the one counter-team thing he does, constantly. just say “one of your best players” doc, dont just crap all over pierce, ray and hell, the way he’s coming along, even rondo.

i mean its true of course, from an overall standpoint, but its got to be grateing to hear when you post a 22 like pierce did tonight (one of the most efficent games hes had all year, he was doing everything out there…) and then here your coach rant about his best player.

He had the wrong combinations on the floor at the wrong time. That’s why they couldn’t hold the lead. Examples: (1) Who was supposed to be covering Bonzi Wells? Posey or TA should have come in to cover wells the second Wells hit the floor. (2) Speaking of TA, he just couldn’t match up when the Rockets put Alston and Brooks on the floor at the same time. Why put him in that situation? Put him on Wells instead and let House play the point. (3) All year, Rivers has managed the rotations so that at least one of the three stars was out there with 4 bench players. But in the second quarter he benched all three stars at the same time, with predictable results. (4) BBD made one bad pass and was yanked from the game, never to reurn. BBD should have been used to cover Scola, not Posey. He also could have use Powe on Scola. You need to put a body on Scola just as you do on Yao. (5) Rivers waited too long to reinsert Pierce in the 4th quarter. (6) Generally speaking, in Q2 and Q3 he experimented with unusual combinations, none of which worked.

There were three positives: (1) Garnett was given plenty of rest. That’s one reason why he was able to come in and take over the game at the end. (2) Scalabrine didn’t play. (3) Did I mention that Scalabrine didn’t play.

Adelman made the proper adjustments to give Houston a chance to win the game, starting with the insertion of two small quick guards at the same time. Rivers never made the proper adustments, instead taking the “mad scientist” approach to his substitution patterns. Fortunately for the Celtics, KG simply would not be denied.

I’m glad for KG’s performance last night because — and I have no concrete evidence for it other than intuition — I felt like his energy and enthusiasm have been flagging for the last, say, ten games or so. He seems rejuvenated now. And I think Pierce deserves credit for this. His fretting about perhaps taking too many shots on the road trip led, I think, to his passing up good shots to get KG more involved, especially down the stretch. This is brilliant on Pierce’s part. It’s almost, dare I say it, Duncanian.

In the category of everybody wins, AlJeff could/should be elected to the All Star team for the West. The guy is having a monster year on a crappy team.

Gorman:

“He looks like Hulk Hogan out there”!!

 :D

mcpu40, Brickowski isn’t getting “piled on” on any posts. He remains fixated on Doc as a bad coach and many of us think this year has proved that last year Doc was not a bad coach. He didn’t have players. How he can be a bad coach this year with a 27-3 record is absurd.
I do agree with him that BBD got yanked too quick but I also watched the game and saw that Perk and Tony (as well as others) were slow on defense. The players didn’t have it, over-intellectualizing Doc’s rotations is ridiculous. He had the right one at the end and that is the NBA

Why not see Doc’s experiments as just that, experiments? I’m glad he’s trying out new things, especially in a game like this, against a team without its (second?)best player, in January, at home, after a road trip. The fact that they didn’t work is okay with me. Now we know.

Still, does Ray need to play 42 minutes? And Pierce 40?

I am anti-Doc. Sorry, that’s just the way it is. Nice guy, can’t coach. Fortunately he’s got veteran all-stars and a great lead assistant.

you cant have it both ways though. when they lose,or fail to hold leads its never any of the players faults with you, its always soley on doc’s shoulders. but when they win, its never docs coaching, its the players succeding despite him.

i have no problem with you not liking the mans coaching style, but you have to be consistant on some level. can’t have your cake and eat it to.

also, what players did he have without pierce? big al?

hows that working out in Minn, where al is havign a great season with most of the same guys he played with here? i belive the just won number 4 a few days ago…

MN’s problem is not Big Al, it’s horrible guards. They couldn’t win games in the ACC with those guards.

As for Rivers, I’ll give him credit for being a nice guy. The players like him. It’s like they used to say about Grace Kelly: she’s beautiful but she can’t act. All the Ubuntu in the world won’t make up for a deficiency in the Xs and Os, and for that reason I have no conficence that this team can get past the second round of the playoffs.

Brick, the point of my above post was not to discuss MINN’s problems, it was to point out that your inconstant on doc. One of the complaints I hear from you a lot is that he doesn’t need to even coach for this team, and that the perception that last year he had no players when paul was out is false and proves hes a bad coach. But, if that’s true, and all they needed was better coaching, why is it that big al and THE EX CELTICS guards are no better in MiNN? Those guards you complain are weak were weak last year to were they not when they were on our team were they not? Gerald and Ryan didn’t suddenly lose all their upside on the plane trip right? The only guard that didn’t switch over who was healthy was rondo, are you telling me doc should have come up with 15-18 wins out of him?

The wolves, composed primarily of the Celtics roster of youngsters from last year is on pace to finish with 12 wins this year. But this is the same roster that you contend doc should have gotten more than 10 wins out of while paul was out. Inconstant on your part..

Now, im not saying doc is a great coach, in fact I agree he’s not a good x’s and o’s guy. But that’s not all there is to coaching. Bill belicheck is a great x’s and o’s guy, but by all accounts his players don’t particularly like him. Respect him yes, like him and enjoy working for him, no. but they get it done because bill is one of the best x’s and o’s guys in the nfl, if not THE best.

But you know who else is a terrible x’s and o’s coach for his sport and yet wins championships? Tito francona. Now, I’ll be the first to admit, from a game standpoint I know a lot more about baseball than football, and ask anyone withen the baseball world, and terry is seen as a subpar manager mechanics wise. He doesn’t manage pitching staffs well, sticks with lineups that seem counter productive, and tends to play every situation to cautiously. But you know what? Hes on of the best managers in the game, and I would want no one else running the soxs. Why? Because as causally as you dismissed doc as a players coach in your previous post, like that’s a bad thing, with a team stacked with veterans, sometimes that’s the best type of coach to have.

The red sox don’t win because terry is a great strategy guy, they win because they’d line up and run through a brick wall for him because he protects them and makes the game fun. This is exactly what doc is doing, and ill take his 27-3 recored thank you.

Wow……

Brick, crownsy, mcpu40, Andy jick

It’s a players league, it always has been. Coaches for the most part add 1-5% to a team’s win. Yes, Doc is a nice guy, Yes, there are times you can question his rotation, but the players execution is a major part on what happens on the court.

Read above what I said about the players that went to Minnesota.

Veteran players take over a game and control the flow of the game. That’s why team’s like the Celtics, Lakers, Bulls, Piston, Rockets, of the 80’s and 90’s won.

You can be the greatest coach in the world, but if the talent is not there then forget it. The philosophy of coaches is bringing players together. Coaches need to take courses in psychology now a days because of the many personalities that exist. X’s and O’s don’t mean a thing if a player can execute a play properly (ala Gerald Green)

Trust me I know having coached many years, that without player talents your not going far. Chemistry is also very important in how a team jells together. You can’t have disharmony now a days like you once did. You need every players mindset to be focused in winning and achieving those goals.

Again, the Celtics have the talent (Pierce, Garnett, Allen). You have a strong bench where we thought we had a weakness. At 27-3 you can’t expect this team to always play flawless. Everyone of us makes mistakes in our daily lives, whether at home or work. We learn from them and we move on.

In Doc’s case, he expected the players on the floor to contribute and they didn’t.

During the course of the year, you have to play your bench and get them as much playing time as possible and allow them to make mistakes. As long as the mistakes are kept to a minimal, I’m okay with it.

I understand the Playoff’s are different, but for now we are 27-3 and last year at this time we were 8-23.

So lets enjoy this team, for it’s been over 20 years since we’ve had a legit team again!

again, i ask that people read posts. i wasn’t comparing the people and records at all, nor thier success. i was comparing their styles of coaching.

please read posts before you fire back, it saves us all alot of time.

and again, that wasen’t a defend doc post, which you seem to have quick read it as, it was just pointing out that the reason that brick seems to get “piled on” is that he isn’t constant in his criticisms.

if we win by 10 , you’ll see brick praise the players, and not mention doc. if we lose or win a close game, its doc’s fault and the players can’t be blamed.

im fine with talking about doc’s shortcomings as a coach, but dont be part of that crowd that only comes out when its convient. if they win by 25, lets talk about what doc didnt or didnt do in that game.

but no one ever does that. ever.

and before people think i have some kind of beef with brick, i think hes one of if not the best poster on this board. he’s clearly got a high basketball iq, and has great insights all the time. i just wish that if were going to be anti-doc, we do it objectively, and not when its convenient.

I’m not anti-Doc, I’m one of the few who is very fond of Doc as a person and as a Coach.

I like he’s coaching style before when he had all the kids and I like him even more so now that he is coaching this Veteran team.

If you ask me if he’s the perfect coach for this team? At the moment I would have to say “Yes” considering their record. I for one thought they’d be playing close to a .600 clip and not an unheard of .900 clip.

A Coach is only as good as the players around him. Again its a players league and the coaches job is to get them to jell as a cohesive unit (alla K.C. Jones in the 80’s)

Remember something here that one Assistant Coach who became a Head Coach couldn’t hack it who many thought would have been a good coach. I’m talking about Jimmy Rogers. He clashed with Bird and McHale and was quickly let go.

And then we had a Coach ….ahem… Pitno who thought he was above the players…….

For my money…. I take Doc….. “CASE CLOSED”

I’ve been anti-Doc 100% of the time, not just when it’s convenient. He could be 27-3 or 3-27 and he’d still be a poor coach.
Sure it’s a players’ league— thank goodness for that. But if you think a superior coach can’t make a difference, just look at the Portland Trailblazers.

As I said, Doc’s biggest attribute is that he’s a nice guy— too nice if you ask me. So the players don’t turn off the coaching staff, as they did with guys like Rick Carlisle and Scott Skiles, both of whom are far superior to Rivers as coaches but who lost their teams and got fired— just like Rivers in Orlando. At least Rivers learned from that firing that a prickly personality gets you nowhere with veteran players. You may recall that during his Orlando tenure Rivers had run-ins with a number of his players, starting with the whole Horace Grant saga.

Rivers had a much better team last year than MN has this year. Rondo and D. West were vastly superior to anything MN has in the backcourt. I don’t blame Rivers for the 18 stright losses. They were blatantly tanking and everyone knew it. But I do blame him for the atrocious offensive and defensive schemes and the complete lack of organization of his team on the floor.

This year they are VERY organized on defense, and there are two reasons for that: Tom Thibodeau and Kevin Garnett. Last year they were hopeless. I was laughing my head off last night when Rivers tried to take credit for the team’s defensive improvement in his TV interview.

Geez guys, please get some software that knows that thw work p-r-i-c-k-l-y is a perfectly legitimate English word that has nothing to do with the male anatomy.

No, Pinkley was the character played by Donald Sutherland in The Dirty Dozen.

Speaking of movies starring Lee Marvin, IMHO Kevin Garnett is the NBA equivalent of the sergeant (played by Marvin) in “The Big Red One.” I can just see KG with his rifle waiting to shoot the next guy who loafs on defense.

I’m afraid I started something with my previous “Brick” post. I was just disagreeing with him, that’s all. Hopefully I didn’t express it in such a way that it looked like an attack. For truth in advertising purposes I am a huge Doc fan. (I found out last nite that I weigh almost as much as KG). Fortunately Danny evalutated Doc based on the situation he was in. I think one of the reasons we have Tom Thibodeau is because he was upset with Houston firing Jeff Van Gundy. Adelman isn’t doing any better with that team. The right players aren’t there and there’s so much a coach can do. (Thibodeau could have been let go with Van Gundy as new coaches usually hire their own staffs). Will be interesting to see how the Bulls do with their new coach once the honeymoon is over. The problems that are there are still there.

As to BBD being yanked after a few mistakes (same with TA)—-He usually does this when the player’s head isn’t in the game which seemed to be the case with BBD. Pollard, in a post game interview, listed the things he (Pollard) had done wrong, but his head was in the game, he knew what he was doing wrong and why. He was effective, BBD was not.

BBD didn’t make a “few” mistakes he made one mistake.

Eithe develop BBD now, or get eaten alive by Jason Maxiel in the EC finals. There is no way that Pollard can deal with Maxiel.
Rivers was putting down the rook for making a mistake. Bravo to you, Doc Rivers. You showed him.

so i dont understand why you came out and made like i was comparing them as coaches then, no where in it do i say anything about where i rank them.

do you disagree that BB is a great x and o guy, and terry and doc are more players coaches? thats the only point of that post, that you can do it different ways.

anyway, all im saying is i never see any posts when were winning, and i dont think doc is a bad coach FOR THIS TEAM because a players coach is what they need. let the players play and let doc do what he does, which is make the locker room thier sanctuary, ala francona, and keep them on an even keel.

the fact that he’s not a great x’s and o’s guy doesnt worry me. his assitant coaches are, and everything seems to be working out fine on the old chalk board.

Just Blame Ancient Red for all this LOL ;D

OK Brick, I give up.

Doc is still a bad coach but now he has 3 hall of famers starting for him. A caveman could do well with this line-up.